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Hanamichi Sakuragi
Hanamichi Sakuragi (桜木 花道 Sakuragi Hanamichi) is the main character of Slam Dunk series. At the beginning of the series, Sakuragi is a slacker, good for nothing other than fighting. He is the leader of the feared "Sakuragi Legion", which consists of his four friends Mito, Noma, Ohkusu and Takamiya. Sakuragi's quest for love is nothing but humiliating. He is always trying to ask girls out, but is rejected constantly, the fiftieth rejection occurring at the start of the series. He then met Haruko Akagi, a lovely and friendly basketball fangirl, whom he fell in love with, immediately. This and Haruko's encouragement led to him to join the Shohoku basketball team. However, as a complete beginner, he is not able to keep up with the rest of the team at first, despite his physical attributes (great height, athleticism, stamina, speed and leaping ability). In spite of the setbacks he has had to face, Sakuragi displays a great deal of tenacity and determination that carry him through and help reciprocate for his other failings, both on and off the court. Although his love for Haruko and rivalry with Rukawa are the main driving forces motivating him to succeed in basketball, his injury during the Sannoh match makes him realize that he has actually come to love the game, leading him to give his all for his team and bring them victory. Personality Throughout the manga, he is very short tempered, arrogant and aggressive. He begins regarding himself as a genius even when he has not learned any skills. His most recognizable trait is his red hair, though he shaves his head as reparation for an error that led to a loss in the interhigh tournament against Kainan. Sakuragi has a habit of making fun of other players by calling them things other than their names. He calls Akagi "gorilla or gori" (causing other people to mimic - much to Akagi's irritation), Uozumi "Boss monkey", Kiyota "Wild monkey", Maki "Uncle or Senior", Mashiro "Totem pole", Masashi "Bald Gori", Miyamasu "alien" and Fujima "substitute" . Despite this, the only one doing the same thing to Sakuragi is Kiyota who calls him "red haired monkey". At first, Sakuragi was known for his poor basketball skills as a beginner and in his first few official matches, he fouled out every game. However, his basketball skills advanced throughout the series. First, he developed his basic skills such as dribbling and lay ups. Then, trained by Akagi, he became a formidable rebounder, with his rebounding becoming his claim to fame throughout the latter half of the series.During the time between after the Kainan match and before the Ryonan match, Akagi and Kogure train him to do bank shots.He also is seen more than once defining the match for Shohoku in the last seconds, for instance, by dunking a ball that Akagi would have missed in the interhigh tournament match with Ryonan. His jump shooting was then developed by Coach Anzai, who had him make 20,000 shots in a week. He hit a buzzer-beating jump shot to win the match against Sannoh. However, he also injured his back during the match against Sannoh, and underwent rehabilitation after Shohoku's subsequent loss to Aiwa Academy. In spite of the setbacks he has had to face, Sakuragi displays a great deal of tenacity and determination that carry him through and help reciprocate for his other failings, both on and off the court. Although his love for Haruko and rivalry with Rukawa are the main driving forces motivating him to succeed in basketball, his injury during the Sannoh match makes him realize that he has actually come to love the game, leading him to give his all for his team and bring them victory. Abilities As seen and witnessed by Haruko and Hikoichi, the skills Sakuragi really excels at is his jumping, speed and power. Kawata Masashi of Sannoh notes that he has never seen a person with that kind of knee power. The height of his jump is incredibly high as noted by Coach Takato of Kainan High as he was able to jump back to block Sawakita's dunk attempt and stop the alley-oop to Masashi despite him falling to the floor. His jumping ability makes him a formidable rebounder under the tutelage of Akagi. He is also noted for being strong as Akagi says that in a battle of strength, no one can beat him. He is able to hold his own against Kawata Mikio who weighs 130 kg. Akagi also notes that Sakuragi is much stronger than Uozumi Jun of Ryonan and Kawata Mikio of Sannoh despite the latter being smaller. Sakuragi also has abnormal strength as noted by Noma. Ayako also notes that his speed and athleticism surpass most high school students, even surpassing Akagi or Rukawa's as he is able to become a fully realized basketball player in just four months into his basketball career. He is also noted for having a large amount of stamina as he is able to run and defend the basket from Sannoh's attacks. At first, he can only do dunks and lay-ups, but under Akagi's thorough training his shooting presence becomes well-known. Then with Coach Anzai's training, he is able to finish 20,000 shots in a week to further improve his shooting range. Despite this, Mito notes that standing at 45 degrees to the right gives Sakuragi higher success rate at shooting jump shots. The only weakness that Sakuragi has shown is having a weak opponent as he is unable to show his true skills and abilities. Mito notices this when Miyamasu of Kainan subs in as Sakuragi starts to miss shots. Another weakness of Sakuragi for the majority of the series isthat his shooting presence was not highly accurate which changed just before the Nationals. In his final match for the tournament against Sannoh, he became a complete basketball player showing the ability to out-wit opponents, get past opponents in one-on-ones, hold his own against a player weighing 130kg, perform dunks, rebounds and jump shots all efficiently. Playing Style & Skills The only skill that made Sakuragi well known is his rebounding. He is able to outrebound players like Hanagata Toru, Uozumi Jun, Kazuma Takasago and Nobe Masahiro. All four other players are regarded as one of the best centers and rebounders in the country. His rebounding skills are so good that even Akagi mentions that if it wasn't for his rebounds Shohoku wouldn't be winning games. Because of his rebounding skills, Coach Duomoto of Sannoh instructs Masashi to mark Sakuragi instead of Akagi to stop his rebounds. However Sakuragi managed to hold off his own against Masashi and even gave him hard times shooting the ball. His rebounds are the main reason for Shohoku's comeback victory over Sannoh in the second round of the National Competition. Coach Taoka of Ryonan is even surprised that a power forward like Sakuragi ever existed. As he is able to jump continuously just to get the the ball cleanly, Masahiro quotes that other than Masashi, Sakuragi was the only one who has beaten him in getting the offensive rebounds Relationships Haruko Akagi Sakuragi's love for Haruko makes him a better player as well as a person throughout the series. However, she does not reciprocate his feelings until the end of the manga, during the Sannoh game as she comes to check on his back. He is initially taken aback by her big crush on Rukawa, but still tries to win her by motivating himself to learn new moves. It is unclear whether Haruko begins to like him or whether she still sees him as her best friend. Kaede Rukawa The two players are polar opposites of one another. But Rukawa is pretty much what Sakuragi wants to be: skillful in basketball and popular with women. While the two do not like each other, Rukawa appreciates Sakuragi's hustle and determination to play, as noted when Rukawa intentionally fouled to have Sakuragi check back in to the court. The two's resolve came when Rukawa made the game winning assist to Sakuragi as Shohoku won against Sannoh. Rivals Sakuragi has a few rivals in both anime and movies and his rivals are similar to his personality as well as his troublemaking antics and being fouled out in the game with the exception of Fukuda who outplays him in the first half of the game against Ryonan. Koichirou Rango Rango is the center player from team Tsukubu during the second movie. Rango meets Sakuragi after gaining a crush towards Haruko who practices basketball all by herself as he saves her ball by shooting the basketball dunk while in a motorcycle helmet. They started their rivalry when Sakuragi angrily headbutts him after seeing him had a crush on Haruko as he also headbutts him in retaliation while Sakuragi's friends discovered that Rango is able to withstand Sakuragi's headbutt just like both Rukawa and Akagi. During the best of 8 game before facing Shoyo, He makes fun out of Sakuragi while he's on the bench and later when he replaces Kogure to play the game, He and Sakuragi are seen bickering when they wanted to face Rukawa after the latter calls them two idiots. Sakuragi manage to get another rebound but knocking Rango to the ground resulting him getting a fifth foul and ends up being fouled out. In the end of the movie, Rango congratulates them for winning as Haruko arrives to praise Sakuragi's team victory as both ends up bickering just for Haruko. Nobunaga Kiyota Kiyota is another rival to Sakuragi and his troublemaking antics and his personality closely resembles to him in which he calls Sakuragi as "Red-Haired Monkey" as the latter calls him as "Wild Monkey". Both characters shared the same jersey #10 and their positions in playing basketball are different and they are trying to make a rival towards Rukawa. However, their antics cause both captains Akagi and Maki punch them to their heads and they apologized for the embarassment of both of their teams before the start of their basketball match. This also happens after the national eliminations, where Sakuragi joins up with him and Maki to watch a basketball match between both Meioh and Aiwa as both are seen bickering with each other when they met. Later after Meioh wins against Aiwa, he and Sakuragi are booing at Hiroshi Morishige and his teammates for their victory. Kicchou Fukuda Fukuda is also became Sakuragi's rival when he wants to challenge him to a basketball match by convincing one of his friends to challenge him but the latter refuses by headbutting them due to his depression after they lost against Kainan. In the match against Ryonan, he and Sakuragi challenged to a loop-sided match resulting in the first half where Sakuragi was injured on his head after his bumps his head to the ground while bleeding as he states to him that he won while on the second half Sakuragi manages to outplayed him after he gets injured in the first half. Hiroshi Morishige Morishige is also similar to Sakuragi and also being fouled out in the game due to his immense strength as a beginner as well as his clumsiness of getting a technical foul when he's hanging on the dunk after bumping both Aiwa players with a massive slam dunk. This raises Sakuragi's fighting spirit who wanted to challenge him after watching his match against Aiwa. In his case, he causes him to injure Aiwa's ace, Dai Moroboshi during their match due to his physical immense strength and after the game it also knocks Sakuragi to the ground when they passed each other. He also appears as a grudge through Sakuragi's mind. Family It has been mentioned in the anime about Hanamichi’s father, who he calls old man, who had a heart attack when Hanamichi returned home. But Hanamichi couldn’t do anything for him because he was stopped by a group of high school students and was beaten up by them and was unable to get an ambulance for his father. This flashback was shown after Coach Anzai had his heart attack reminding Hanamichi of his past. As nothing was mentioned of his father after that, he is presumably dead. Trivia *Both Sakuragi and Tsubomi from the Heartcatch Pretty Cure! are same with have to "Hana". *Sakuragi is based on NBA player Dennis "The Worm" Rodman because of his rebounding and his dyed hair (it was red at one point). They both share the same jersey number, 10, that Rodman wore during his time with the Detroit Pistons and later on, the San Antonio Spurs . Rodman was a fierce defender while Sakuragi is somewhat a weak on-ball defender as he is easily thrown off with a feint; however he was better at shooting and jumped higher than Rodman. The rebounding style of Rodman was different from that of Sakuragi’s, who rebounded with his jumping ability whereas Rodman got the rebounds using his physical mass or chipping the ball until he caught it. *There were many coincidences during Rodman’s career that paralleled Sakuragi’s journey through basketball. The Chicago Bulls were the counter-parts of the Shohoku team, a clear reference since the two teams jerseys were completely identical. Rodman did play for the Bulls, but interestingly only began in 1996, which was the year “Slam Dunk” ended in. There was also an incident in the same year where Rodman headbutted referee Ted Bernhardt; a recurring gag throughout the series was Sakuragi’s deadly headbutt, used most often on his own gang or on his enemies when he was infuriated. *Sakuragi's friendship with Miyagi is similar to the relationship between power forward Karl Malone and point guard John Stockton, although its unlikely that Inoue meant it to be a reference. *Sakuragi has similarities with Kuroko no Basuke's Taiga Kagami. Both are red-haired, jump high and wear the same jersey no. But Kagami is more skillful than Sakuragi as he can shoot anywhere and even shoot 3s. Kagami also has signature skills due to the manga itself as every player has their very own signature skills. But Sakuragi has a stronger physique and stamina than Kagami. *It is presumed that after the game against Sannoh, Coach Anzai didn't let him play against Aiwa because of his injury in the back. If so, because of his absence, Shohoku was easily trashed by Aiwa. Category:Shohoku High School basketball team Category:Characters Category:Basketball Players Category:Power Forwards Category:Kanagawa Players Category:High School 1st Years